Saturday, May 13, 2006

I came across a great site today that has an immense collection of free, quality icon images that developers can use in their projects. The Silk collection is really cool!

They are published with a Creative Commons license, so as long as you give the guy credit and include a link to his site in your about box, you are free to use them any way you wish in your projects, including making derivative works of them.

They are in .png format but they can be easily converted to .bmp or .ico.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Linux lovers are like those guys that go to a football game in the middle of winter with no shirt on, and their bodies painted in their fav team's colors. Would you want to say something bad about their team where they can hear it? Would you want to say something good about the other team?

I am not talking about a normal person that can see the merits & faults in either OS and can use either one for themselves depending on the circumstances. I am not talking about people that are sane & 'normal' Linux users. I am referring to the guys that think everyone should be using Linux, Microsoft should be blown off the earth, and if you don't like it or can't figure Linux out, you should stfu and get rid of your pc.

They think if you say you don't like Linux that you don't like them, too. They identify with their OS just a bit too much. They have a habit of getting into very heated Linux arguments with Windows users and Windows programmers. Somehow they believe that your operating system defines who you are...not merely what you prefer to use.

Nobody's value as a human being should be rated based on an operating system installed on their pc.

Linux users are not the only ones that do this though. I have seen a great many Windows programmers do the same thing when referring to Windows 9x users. Somehow they think that people that still use Windows 98se or Windows ME are less human than those that can afford newer computers, or afford to upgrade. And they think that these people are less in need of quality software that will run on their systems.

Is their money less green than an XP user? I don't seem to think so. And it's not that hard to support an older OS. It's not unacceptable to detect an OS and disable features in software that will not work on that OS. And it's not unacceptable to provide an alternative or features that will only work on 9x and disabling them for NT users.

Just because Microsoft decided that it will no longer support 9x it doesn't mean that 9x will suddenly disappear off the earth. There are still a great many computers out there that can't run newer OS's...their hardware doesn't allow it. Slow processors, lack of RAM, drivers not available...lots of reasons not to upgrade.

And just because someone does buy a new PC that doesn't mean that they will be tossing the old one in the trash. I moved my old pc to my kitchen and plan on putting a recipe database on it...if I can find suitable software to run on it. Older software may not be an option for me, as most older versions have been replaced with newer versions that forget about people like me. Newer versions are not an option because most think you are running a Pentium 4 with at least 256mb of RAM, and Windows XP. My only alternative may be to code it myself...meaning that it will probably be years before I have what I want.

I am going to make sure that my software I create will work on that old pc...for people like me that still have an old hunk of 'junk'. I promise that to you for as long as that old pc still runs. I will not define your human worth based on your OS.

Some guys over as MSFN are working on an unofficial service pack for WinME. When completed, it will allow users of that version of windows to have a system as stable as my WinME system...maybe even better than mine.

These guys know what they are doing and are dedicated to this project and making it as near perfect as possible.

It's still in development but there should be a release candidate soon.

And these guys are thinking of everything...even a WMF patch added! (an issue our 'friends' at Microsoft seem to want to ignore and/or deny the need for)

They have this great 'coding snacks' forum where visitors can request small utility programs and volunteers will create them. It's a great way to get project ideas, or kill a bit of time doing what you know you love to do...code stuff.

Someone there requested a stopwatch with a global hotkey to control it. They wanted it to either always stay on top or be able to be minimized to the system tray.

Since I had already done a stopwatch like this, all it needed was the addition of a global hotkey and the request would be filled...so that's what I did.

The hotkey is Ctrl-Shift-F9.

Hitting this will start/pause/resume, depending on the current state of the clock.This will even work to control the stopwatch if it is minimized to the tray.

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Over on DonationCoder.com, mouser just released a new version of Translation Boomerang. This uses Google's free web-based translation service to translate a statement or word into up to 9 languages and back to English. If you have never heard of it or used it, it's a must try program.

This is not a serious translator...it's quite funny!

The following is the output, step by step, from English to each language and back to English, for 5 loops. The first line is my original English phrase. The last line is the farthest thing from the first that I could have imagined.

Available for wild sex.================================================Available for wild sex.================================================Available for the wild sex.================================================Available for the wild sex.================================================Available for the wild sex.================================================Land available for sex.================================================The land which can be utilized because of characteristic.================================================The ground it could be used because of quality.================================================Because it can use local quality.================================================Because it can use local quality.================================================Because it can use local quality.================================================Since it can employ local quality.================================================Since it can employ the local quality.================================================Since that it can use the local quality.================================================It can be used to the local quality.================================================As for that it can use for local quality.================================================The tube printed style of writing hazard it will be able to use a local quality to that.================================================Editorial dangerous pipeline to India using local quality.================================================Editorial dangerous piping to India with local quality.================================================Publishing dangerous pipe to India with local quality.================================================Dangerous pipe of edition towards India with local quality.================================================Dangerous tube of the edition towards India with local quality.================================================Dangerous pipe of the edition for India with local quality.================================================The risk of pipeline quality of the local edition of India.================================================Danger of quality of pipeline of the Indian local section.================================================Question danger of pipeline of humane local profile.================================================Charities pipelines, may local image.================================================Next dear ear lines, know local picture.================================================The considered following lines of the ear, know the picture local.================================================Considered afterwards lines of the ear, know people of the country of image.================================================The lines later on considered of the ear, know people of the country of the image.================================================The lines later in the considered one of the ear, know peoples of the country of the image.================================================Lines later in one ear, and knows people in a country profile.================================================With one ear later as for line, knowing people of profile of country.================================================In the line the tube printed style of writing or is knowing 1 return route and the people of the profile of the nation in.================================================The Bank is one of the editorial was printed circuit and the people of the whole country's image.================================================The bank is the editorial was print plate and the people of the complete picture of the country.================================================The bank is the publishing one was plate of the impression and the people of the complete picture of the country.================================================The bank is of edition was flat impression and people of the complete image of the country.================================================The bank is of the edition was flat impression and people of the complete image of the country.================================================The bank is of the edition was smooth impression and person of the complete image of the country.================================================Bank of Edition impression smooth and full picture of a country.================================================Edition impression of the country being smooth, the bank of complete image.================================================The impression which the smooth nation sells, the bank of the image which is complete.================================================Impression of a national marketing, banking image is completed.